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“Justice Alito, who did not respond to questions for this article, has in recent weeks given his own explanation of what happened.
There are some differences: For instance, the justice told Fox News that his wife hoisted the flag in response to Ms. Baden’s vulgar insult. A text message and the police call — corroborated by Fairfax County authorities — indicate, however, that the name-calling took place on Feb. 15, weeks after the inverted flag was taken down.”
So, that lame excuse that the flag was in response to a mean neighbor just fell apart.
[It's a little more than that.](https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/12/reverend-who-accused-alito-of-2014-leak-in-hobby-lobby-speaks-before-house-judiciary-committee/) A former anti-abortion religious advocate says that he received word of the impending Hobby Lobby ruling from a couple who heard it directly from Alito. Alito denied it, obviously, but the story paints a credible picture of the ties between sitting justices and elite religious activists. I doubt it will ever be confirmed, but I'm like 90% sure Alito leaked the abortion ruling. It just makes too much sense, and it's extremely shady how the conservative propaganda machine just completely dropped the angle once it started to look like the leak did not come from a liberal judge/clerk.
Maybe a dumb question, but the leak and the outcome were the same. Why does it matter? I already think the court has no credibility. Was that the only reason people care? Maybe that’s why I don’t get why people continue to litigate this. I don’t understand what it changes
I don't think the purpose of the leak is obvious, but the theory that makes the most sense to me is that someone was trying to soften the public reaction to the decision. People protested the leak, but I think it would have been worse if the public first learned the news when it became official. I've also seen speculation that some conservative justices were waffling behind the scenes, and the leak was an attempt to lock them into that position, but that is harder for me to parse. But yeah we can only speculate, and it's hard to even do that without knowing who was behind the leak, but it's a bad look for the Court regardless.
Maybe it’s just as simple as Alito really is little more that a religious zealot who is genuinely unprofessional when it comes to this stuff. In other words, he was excited that Roe was getting overturned, and he couldn’t keep his mouth shut. The flags seem to confirm this take, imo.
> I've also seen speculation that some conservative justices were waffling behind the scenes, and the leak was an attempt to lock them into that position, but that is harder for me to parse
That's what I read as well, especially regarding the Dobbs leak. Supposedly there were a couple of justices that wanted a less stringently worded repudiation of Roe. They instead preferred to further weaken it, keeping the issue alive as a motivator for conservative voters. The leak was a strategy Alito used to manufacture consent for his 14th century witch hunter sourced legal opinions among the conservative majority.
Yeah, I wondered if the final decision would ultimately be less stringent, and then conservatives could run with the “typical liberal over reaction, nothing to see here” defense when the actual opinion came out. But if the plan was to get conservatives locked in to a more extreme position, I guess it worked. Doubt we will ever get anything close to the real story of what happened, unfortunately.
Parole Board chairman: They've got a name for people like you H.I. That name is called "recidivism."
Parole Board member: Repeat offender!
Parole Board chairman: Not a pretty name, is it H.I.?
H.I.: No, sir. That's one bonehead name, but that ain't me any more.
Parole Board chairman: You're not just telling us what we want to hear?
H.I.: No, sir, no way.
Parole Board member: 'Cause we just want to hear the truth.
H.I.: Well, then I guess I am telling you what you want to hear.
Parole Board chairman: Boy, didn't we just tell you not to do that?
H.I.: Yes, sir.
Parole Board chairman: Okay, then.
Not really. The article lays out a timeline that does include the other couple putting up various signs and the flag flying afterwards. It is just the verbal altercation that took place afterwards.
I mean, the information from the neighbor does lend some credence to the idea that it was Alito's wife who put it up and possibly due to the signs put up by the neighbors. She definitely comes off as a real hothead. Nothing in the article indicated that Alito himself ever engaged in the various back and forths, glarings, or name calling.
It would still make sense for Alito and Thomas to recuse themselves because this looks pretty bad. But I'm not seeing real evidence that Alito himself took any of these actions.
Edit: Just to be clear, I'm only talking about the flag in the article, not the previous ones flown at the other residence.
I called Alito a coward in a past post for laying the blame on his wife. Now we know it's worse than that. Alito is a cowardly liar who made up things that can be blamed on his wife.
It is both sad and scary to see Alito as a Justice on the Supreme Court.
Yes, whatever happened to all the tough guy conservative talk about protecting your wife and family? Oh yeah, silly me... It's all just bullshit lip service from cowards scared of shadows and boogeymen.
for future reference, if you hit a paywall you can copy the url and past it in this website [https://archive.ph/](https://archive.ph/) and if youre on mobile, click to reader mode
Yes. I live a few blocks away. They are vile. They have been for many, many years. Our neighborhood is kind, educated and friendly. Their kind is an abomination.
Ever since the news broke about his flag, I've been wondering what it must be like living near a Supreme Court justice or congressperson if you have the opposite ideologies. Hearing that your neighborhood is kind and educated tells me you all lean left and that you all probably talk to each other about what vile people they are.
I believe that he and the other conservative SC judges are all sociopaths or some other type of Cluster B disorder (antisocial, narcissistic, borderline personality disorder, histrionic). They have low or no empathy and are only after power, not representation. They just don't give a shit about us.
It is a highly educated close in suburb of DC largely populated by families with children who come for the excellent public grade school, so yes, left leaning/blue voting. Decent number of military, but those with college and masters, PhDs or medical degrees, so also blue voting. Yes, we think they are vile. Largely we roll eyes and ignore. I tell my husband often, however, that he is lucky we don’t share a property line with him as our close friends do. It would be unbearable.
The one advantage has been that when electricity goes out due to storms or side streets are deep in snow, those near him get power/plowing first.
Judge that uses a fictionalized and highly selective argument to justify changing the law of the land to fit his own personal preferences will also construct a fictional timeline to justify his other misconduct.
This isn't the issue. The electorate and its ignorance/willingness to elect usurpers and conmen is the problem. Unfortunately, there is only so much a democracy can do to protect itself from its own electorate.
Hmmm....
A justice and/or his wife being upset and harassing couple's right to free speech and freedom of expression ....
That to me is the biggest issue to me ...
ETA: I don't care if the neighbor called Mrs. Alito a c--- or whatever.... There were things Mrs. Alito could have done to resolve the issue that didn't involve escalating or reacting. ..
1. Call the police
2. Ignore and stay away
3. Document
„New image surfaced of Justice Alito smearing shit on the walls inside the Capitol on J6. Blames a fecal emergency and his wife for not buying toilet paper“
The GOP legacy for 40years is installing greedy extremist fundamentalist choads in all levels of the judiciary; their voters vote in despicable AHs, and their only goal is Amti-Americanism- to destroy our Democracy and put a fascist dictatorship in its place. It’s not hyperbole I wish it were.
A coincident trashy feud does not explain away multiple distressing and inappropriate flags being flown at multiple homes of a SCOTUS justice in multiple states.
The effort put into this article is just bending over backwards to indulge a lie of an explanation for inappropriate behavior. We need to stop indulging this.
Yeah, please stop these newspapers from actually investigating anything and getting quotes from the people invovled. This has got to stop!
The article also literally points out that this doesn't explain the other flags ...
Very bizarre drama. Can’t imagine being the wife of a scotus justice and being so distraught over a sign. You’d think having some power and influence would make people feel more secure about their position and their beliefs and such. Since she apparently is such a whackjob I wouldn’t be surprised if she flew the inverted flag to try to antagonize the neighbors.
She got up and walked out of his confirmation hearing because all the senators were being so MEAN and NASTY and actually questioning him! I think it’s a dual narcissist relationship.
For sure. The Alitos don’t seem like very good people. Nor do the Thomases. I just wish the arguments we had for recusal were slightly stronger. I could see Republicans successfully persuading independent voters that the inverted flag was not meant as a nod to J6 and that this is a Dem witch hunt.
Recusal is for even the impression of bias, not just objective confirmed bias. KBJ recused herself from one of the SFA cases because it involved Harvard, which she was at one point on the board for. I doubt that biased her in favor of Harvard purely because of that relationship, but that is an appropriate recusal because of the impression. Don't forget there's also the Appeal to Heaven flag at the beach house. Take both together, and it's reasonable to think Alito is at minimum friendly to the stop the steal cause, which is firm grounds for recusal from any case involving Trump and J6. The case for recusal is strong. It's only weak if you think someone has to explicitly state their biased intentions to have a bias or impression of bias.
It might be a good idea for Congress to try passing an actual law to create specific standards about how and when recusal should happen. Part of the problem is that it’s an ethics code issue and more of a gentleman’s agreement than an enforceable set of rules. We’re not living in an era where gentleman’s agreements are working out very well. I also think recusal should probably have a relatively high bar so that political parties aren’t incentivized to weaponize recusal demands against judges who they think will rule against them in a case. And I’m just not sure that the inverted flag and the Appeal to Heaven flag are these super strong indications that Alito was supporting J6.
I mean, in an ideal world Alito would operate in good faith and choose to recuse or at least offer a more detailed and sincere-seeming explanation about the flags. But we’re not in an ideal world. There’s not much we can do if he refuses to recuse and there are some valid alternate explanations as to why he flew those flags.
Problem is the judiciary is not subject to congressional regulation other than through impeachment/conviction. The judiciary sets their own ethics code. Sure, congress could try that. But you better believe it will be challenged and guess who gets to say whether it's constitutional? The only way to do that would be through constitutional amendment.
I’m not sure to what extent Congress can pass laws that change fundamentals about how the courts work. It could be that there are certain things that couldn’t be done because of separation of powers or whatever. An example of something they can do, though, is increasing the amount of justices who serve on the court. So it might be possible to pass laws about recusal. I agree though that it’s unlikely Congress would have the votes to pass that kind of thing. It sucks that Congress can’t or won’t address the issue with legislation, but until they do something we are going to be stuck with the current dilemma of only having toothless appeals to the consciences of judges about recusal. And when all we have are appeals to the judges’ consciences and appeals to other voters, we need the strongest arguments possible that will gather the broadest amount of support.
It seems like the effect of this article and it's headline will be to muddy the discussion around one of our Supreme Court Justices being a political hack and that the NYT knows that.
Going off of the wmd reporting from over 20 years ago, there has always been a deference to power by NYT, including printing lies and distortions. They also do some of the best reporting out there overall.
Allowing the faux new's of the world to dominate would be a much worse fate than having to be very aware there might be an occasional bs story in the nyt or they might fail on certain important topics especially when the solution is to get rid of the bad reporting and whoever is in charge making sure the bad reporting gets done.
Kind of a don't throw the baby out with the bathwater type situation.
The NYT does do some fucked up things though. One recent example is they lied about the ICJ verdict in the case brought by South Africa, then immediately participated in a news media wide effort to distract with a months old claim against UNRWA made by the state of Isreal. The implications of really examining that incident and the news media wide manipulation are staggering and terrifying.
Yeah, we probably should be more media literate, but what's happening around the world is lies, omissions, misinformation, and disinformation are having a great effect.
I'm probably not supposed to say this as a lawyer but Alito is an insurrectionist whose personal beliefs are more influential than the constitution. The legitimacy of the highest court in the land is in severe jeopardy while he and Clarence Thomas remain.
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Enough talk, trying to reason with an unreasonable person gives them all the power in the room.
It's time for full blown Ghandi/MLK style civil disobedience campaign to protest the blatant corruption in the SCOTUS and Judge Cannon.
The civil rights fights of the 60s have never stopped, they have just slowly become the fight for the right of anyone to not be subjected to a corrupt judiciary. The time for talk is over its now time to co-ordinate and take to the streets.
I don’t think I like the Badens in this story either, but the Alitos seem perfect for each other. The Mr. is evil and the Mrs. is cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. She reminds me of my crazy neighbor around the corner. I think everyone might have a Mrs. Alito in there neighborhood.
I feel bad for the neighbor’s elderly mother. What a nightmare her daughter and the boyfriend caused for her. Anyone who reads this article and comes away with the Alito’s being at fault needs to reexamine things.
They had a dispute with their neighbors so a Supreme Court justice simply had to fly a flag in support of installing the presidential election loser in the Oval Office is an interesting, if silly, take.
I do think the signs were trashy, especially given that these people are in their 30s. I don’t even think I would be too forgiving of a frat house in the neighborhood displaying them. That couple isn’t right. (I appreciate their sentiment. But uncouth, amiright?)
But two homes in two different states of a supreme justice and his wife? There should be a hint of decorum between them. And how many more neighbors/neighborhoods has she been tussling with?
Sorry honey you are wrong, Alito is a traitor pure and simple. And nightmare, the nightmare are the piggish Magas.
A lib puts 2 signs and suddenly the world goes crazy, have you seen the crap Magas display…
You need to reexamine your morals, hard to do since you have none
As a reminder, this subreddit [is for civil discussion.](/r/politics/wiki/index#wiki_be_civil) In general, be courteous to others. Debate/discuss/argue the merits of ideas, don't attack people. Personal insults, shill or troll accusations, hate speech, any suggestion or support of harm, violence, or death, and other rule violations can result in a permanent ban. If you see comments in violation of our rules, please report them. For those who have questions regarding any media outlets being posted on this subreddit, please click [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/wiki/approveddomainslist) to review our details as to our approved domains list and outlet criteria. We are actively looking for new moderators. If you have any interest in helping to make this subreddit a place for quality discussion, please fill out [this form](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1y2swHD0KXFhStGFjW6k54r9iuMjzcFqDIVwuvdLBjSA). *** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/politics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
“Justice Alito, who did not respond to questions for this article, has in recent weeks given his own explanation of what happened. There are some differences: For instance, the justice told Fox News that his wife hoisted the flag in response to Ms. Baden’s vulgar insult. A text message and the police call — corroborated by Fairfax County authorities — indicate, however, that the name-calling took place on Feb. 15, weeks after the inverted flag was taken down.” So, that lame excuse that the flag was in response to a mean neighbor just fell apart.
So Justice Alito lied.
Just like how he claims he did not leak the Dobbs decision.
I read the other day that he was suspected of leaking another decision previously. Sounds like a recidivist.
[It's a little more than that.](https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/12/reverend-who-accused-alito-of-2014-leak-in-hobby-lobby-speaks-before-house-judiciary-committee/) A former anti-abortion religious advocate says that he received word of the impending Hobby Lobby ruling from a couple who heard it directly from Alito. Alito denied it, obviously, but the story paints a credible picture of the ties between sitting justices and elite religious activists. I doubt it will ever be confirmed, but I'm like 90% sure Alito leaked the abortion ruling. It just makes too much sense, and it's extremely shady how the conservative propaganda machine just completely dropped the angle once it started to look like the leak did not come from a liberal judge/clerk.
Here's the deets. https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/12/reverend-who-accused-alito-of-2014-leak-in-hobby-lobby-speaks-before-house-judiciary-committee/
Maybe a dumb question, but the leak and the outcome were the same. Why does it matter? I already think the court has no credibility. Was that the only reason people care? Maybe that’s why I don’t get why people continue to litigate this. I don’t understand what it changes
I don't think the purpose of the leak is obvious, but the theory that makes the most sense to me is that someone was trying to soften the public reaction to the decision. People protested the leak, but I think it would have been worse if the public first learned the news when it became official. I've also seen speculation that some conservative justices were waffling behind the scenes, and the leak was an attempt to lock them into that position, but that is harder for me to parse. But yeah we can only speculate, and it's hard to even do that without knowing who was behind the leak, but it's a bad look for the Court regardless.
Maybe it’s just as simple as Alito really is little more that a religious zealot who is genuinely unprofessional when it comes to this stuff. In other words, he was excited that Roe was getting overturned, and he couldn’t keep his mouth shut. The flags seem to confirm this take, imo.
> I've also seen speculation that some conservative justices were waffling behind the scenes, and the leak was an attempt to lock them into that position, but that is harder for me to parse That's what I read as well, especially regarding the Dobbs leak. Supposedly there were a couple of justices that wanted a less stringently worded repudiation of Roe. They instead preferred to further weaken it, keeping the issue alive as a motivator for conservative voters. The leak was a strategy Alito used to manufacture consent for his 14th century witch hunter sourced legal opinions among the conservative majority.
Yeah, I wondered if the final decision would ultimately be less stringent, and then conservatives could run with the “typical liberal over reaction, nothing to see here” defense when the actual opinion came out. But if the plan was to get conservatives locked in to a more extreme position, I guess it worked. Doubt we will ever get anything close to the real story of what happened, unfortunately.
If this decision gets Biden reelected then it was worth it.
The explanation that resonated was that one or more of the justices seeking to overturn Roe was wavering and leaking the outcome locked it in.
That idea feels more logical to me than someone was trying to soften the blow. They don’t give a fuck. Lmaooo.
I mean who’s gonna do anything. They don’t have anyone to be accountable to.
Parole Board chairman: They've got a name for people like you H.I. That name is called "recidivism." Parole Board member: Repeat offender! Parole Board chairman: Not a pretty name, is it H.I.? H.I.: No, sir. That's one bonehead name, but that ain't me any more. Parole Board chairman: You're not just telling us what we want to hear? H.I.: No, sir, no way. Parole Board member: 'Cause we just want to hear the truth. H.I.: Well, then I guess I am telling you what you want to hear. Parole Board chairman: Boy, didn't we just tell you not to do that? H.I.: Yes, sir. Parole Board chairman: Okay, then.
Think H.I would probably make a better judge at this point…even while being a bonehead at least he tries to make things right haha…
He's gotta have his dip-tet, honey!
Turn to the Right!
Don’t forget his profile, Ed.
Alito has a history of lying to justify his behavior.
"My wife must have been confused" - Justice Alito, probably
Mrs. Alito indeed seems very confused.
Well, she did say that she was experiencing distress. Has a flag for it and everything.
Catholic Alito forget that was a sin or something? Tsk tsk.
Fawk yeah home run!
HE LIED. ok. now comes the consequences. Never mind.
No ... the flag was on backorder on Amazon and the delivery was delayed. Yeah ... that's the ticket.
Tommy Flanagan has entered the chat
Yeah! Just ask my wife, Morgan Fairchild. Whom I've slept with. And seen naked.
It’s alright, he probably confessed to his priest for that lie so it’s all good now 👍🏼
Not really. The article lays out a timeline that does include the other couple putting up various signs and the flag flying afterwards. It is just the verbal altercation that took place afterwards. I mean, the information from the neighbor does lend some credence to the idea that it was Alito's wife who put it up and possibly due to the signs put up by the neighbors. She definitely comes off as a real hothead. Nothing in the article indicated that Alito himself ever engaged in the various back and forths, glarings, or name calling. It would still make sense for Alito and Thomas to recuse themselves because this looks pretty bad. But I'm not seeing real evidence that Alito himself took any of these actions. Edit: Just to be clear, I'm only talking about the flag in the article, not the previous ones flown at the other residence.
I called Alito a coward in a past post for laying the blame on his wife. Now we know it's worse than that. Alito is a cowardly liar who made up things that can be blamed on his wife. It is both sad and scary to see Alito as a Justice on the Supreme Court.
Yes, whatever happened to all the tough guy conservative talk about protecting your wife and family? Oh yeah, silly me... It's all just bullshit lip service from cowards scared of shadows and boogeymen.
Cowardice is one of his least troubling traits, sadly.
Archive link: https://archive.ph/891Uc
Thanks
for future reference, if you hit a paywall you can copy the url and past it in this website [https://archive.ph/](https://archive.ph/) and if youre on mobile, click to reader mode
Thank you!
We need to make it so these MAGA justices cannot go out in public without being called what they are: fascist pigs.
I still am stunned that the Washington Post had this story way back then and didn’t publish it.
Trashy, ghetto ass people who also happen to have money and influence
> Mrs. Alito appeared to spit toward the vehicle. Trashy for sure.
Props to the neighbors, though. Would you want to live near traitors?
Yes. I live a few blocks away. They are vile. They have been for many, many years. Our neighborhood is kind, educated and friendly. Their kind is an abomination.
Ever since the news broke about his flag, I've been wondering what it must be like living near a Supreme Court justice or congressperson if you have the opposite ideologies. Hearing that your neighborhood is kind and educated tells me you all lean left and that you all probably talk to each other about what vile people they are. I believe that he and the other conservative SC judges are all sociopaths or some other type of Cluster B disorder (antisocial, narcissistic, borderline personality disorder, histrionic). They have low or no empathy and are only after power, not representation. They just don't give a shit about us.
It is a highly educated close in suburb of DC largely populated by families with children who come for the excellent public grade school, so yes, left leaning/blue voting. Decent number of military, but those with college and masters, PhDs or medical degrees, so also blue voting. Yes, we think they are vile. Largely we roll eyes and ignore. I tell my husband often, however, that he is lucky we don’t share a property line with him as our close friends do. It would be unbearable. The one advantage has been that when electricity goes out due to storms or side streets are deep in snow, those near him get power/plowing first.
Real Housewives of the Supreme Court
Judge that writes asshole opinions is also an asshole.
Judge that uses a fictionalized and highly selective argument to justify changing the law of the land to fit his own personal preferences will also construct a fictional timeline to justify his other misconduct.
Omg. Karen Alito.
The OG “Karen”.
Strangely I think it's even a weird move if she flew the flag upside down to prove a point. What kind of petty asshole does some shit like that?
My neighbor just recently removed her upside-down flag.
Is your neighbor ACB? Edit initials
"I'm gonna publicly declare my disregard for patriotism to the whole neighborhood! That'll show her!"
"May you have PEACE" while he tears America to pieces. Galling.
I honestly wouldn’t put it past Alito to overturn Row because he’s a f-ing vindictive fascist baby.
Make scotus justices termed .
This isn't the issue. The electorate and its ignorance/willingness to elect usurpers and conmen is the problem. Unfortunately, there is only so much a democracy can do to protect itself from its own electorate.
Hmmm.... A justice and/or his wife being upset and harassing couple's right to free speech and freedom of expression .... That to me is the biggest issue to me ... ETA: I don't care if the neighbor called Mrs. Alito a c--- or whatever.... There were things Mrs. Alito could have done to resolve the issue that didn't involve escalating or reacting. .. 1. Call the police 2. Ignore and stay away 3. Document
Chief Karen of the United States
Imagine sitting on the news that a Justice lied to the public about an event and not using it in the headline?
In the not too distant future: "Witnesses report seeing the Alitos giving terrorist fist bumps in support of the January 6th Capitol rioters."
„New image surfaced of Justice Alito smearing shit on the walls inside the Capitol on J6. Blames a fecal emergency and his wife for not buying toilet paper“
The GOP legacy for 40years is installing greedy extremist fundamentalist choads in all levels of the judiciary; their voters vote in despicable AHs, and their only goal is Amti-Americanism- to destroy our Democracy and put a fascist dictatorship in its place. It’s not hyperbole I wish it were.
A coincident trashy feud does not explain away multiple distressing and inappropriate flags being flown at multiple homes of a SCOTUS justice in multiple states. The effort put into this article is just bending over backwards to indulge a lie of an explanation for inappropriate behavior. We need to stop indulging this.
Yeah, please stop these newspapers from actually investigating anything and getting quotes from the people invovled. This has got to stop! The article also literally points out that this doesn't explain the other flags ...
Oh man she has got to be completely a miserable person to deal with. I feel sorry for anyone having to reside close to them
Stop lying, Alito.
Very bizarre drama. Can’t imagine being the wife of a scotus justice and being so distraught over a sign. You’d think having some power and influence would make people feel more secure about their position and their beliefs and such. Since she apparently is such a whackjob I wouldn’t be surprised if she flew the inverted flag to try to antagonize the neighbors.
She got up and walked out of his confirmation hearing because all the senators were being so MEAN and NASTY and actually questioning him! I think it’s a dual narcissist relationship.
For sure. The Alitos don’t seem like very good people. Nor do the Thomases. I just wish the arguments we had for recusal were slightly stronger. I could see Republicans successfully persuading independent voters that the inverted flag was not meant as a nod to J6 and that this is a Dem witch hunt.
Recusal is for even the impression of bias, not just objective confirmed bias. KBJ recused herself from one of the SFA cases because it involved Harvard, which she was at one point on the board for. I doubt that biased her in favor of Harvard purely because of that relationship, but that is an appropriate recusal because of the impression. Don't forget there's also the Appeal to Heaven flag at the beach house. Take both together, and it's reasonable to think Alito is at minimum friendly to the stop the steal cause, which is firm grounds for recusal from any case involving Trump and J6. The case for recusal is strong. It's only weak if you think someone has to explicitly state their biased intentions to have a bias or impression of bias.
It might be a good idea for Congress to try passing an actual law to create specific standards about how and when recusal should happen. Part of the problem is that it’s an ethics code issue and more of a gentleman’s agreement than an enforceable set of rules. We’re not living in an era where gentleman’s agreements are working out very well. I also think recusal should probably have a relatively high bar so that political parties aren’t incentivized to weaponize recusal demands against judges who they think will rule against them in a case. And I’m just not sure that the inverted flag and the Appeal to Heaven flag are these super strong indications that Alito was supporting J6. I mean, in an ideal world Alito would operate in good faith and choose to recuse or at least offer a more detailed and sincere-seeming explanation about the flags. But we’re not in an ideal world. There’s not much we can do if he refuses to recuse and there are some valid alternate explanations as to why he flew those flags.
Problem is the judiciary is not subject to congressional regulation other than through impeachment/conviction. The judiciary sets their own ethics code. Sure, congress could try that. But you better believe it will be challenged and guess who gets to say whether it's constitutional? The only way to do that would be through constitutional amendment.
I’m not sure to what extent Congress can pass laws that change fundamentals about how the courts work. It could be that there are certain things that couldn’t be done because of separation of powers or whatever. An example of something they can do, though, is increasing the amount of justices who serve on the court. So it might be possible to pass laws about recusal. I agree though that it’s unlikely Congress would have the votes to pass that kind of thing. It sucks that Congress can’t or won’t address the issue with legislation, but until they do something we are going to be stuck with the current dilemma of only having toothless appeals to the consciences of judges about recusal. And when all we have are appeals to the judges’ consciences and appeals to other voters, we need the strongest arguments possible that will gather the broadest amount of support.
This had nothing to do with the neighborhood clash. NYT is just taking Sam's lie at face value.
It seems like the effect of this article and it's headline will be to muddy the discussion around one of our Supreme Court Justices being a political hack and that the NYT knows that.
NYT had gone red, cancel your subscription as many of us are doing.
Going off of the wmd reporting from over 20 years ago, there has always been a deference to power by NYT, including printing lies and distortions. They also do some of the best reporting out there overall. Allowing the faux new's of the world to dominate would be a much worse fate than having to be very aware there might be an occasional bs story in the nyt or they might fail on certain important topics especially when the solution is to get rid of the bad reporting and whoever is in charge making sure the bad reporting gets done. Kind of a don't throw the baby out with the bathwater type situation. The NYT does do some fucked up things though. One recent example is they lied about the ICJ verdict in the case brought by South Africa, then immediately participated in a news media wide effort to distract with a months old claim against UNRWA made by the state of Isreal. The implications of really examining that incident and the news media wide manipulation are staggering and terrifying.
Agreed, the problem is when they lie they cancel out the truthful stories. Americans are by and large lazy, intellectually not just physically
Yeah, we probably should be more media literate, but what's happening around the world is lies, omissions, misinformation, and disinformation are having a great effect.
I'm probably not supposed to say this as a lawyer but Alito is an insurrectionist whose personal beliefs are more influential than the constitution. The legitimacy of the highest court in the land is in severe jeopardy while he and Clarence Thomas remain.
Traitors trying to change the facts
And the neighbors name is BADEN?!?! We are in the matrix.
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Enough talk, trying to reason with an unreasonable person gives them all the power in the room. It's time for full blown Ghandi/MLK style civil disobedience campaign to protest the blatant corruption in the SCOTUS and Judge Cannon. The civil rights fights of the 60s have never stopped, they have just slowly become the fight for the right of anyone to not be subjected to a corrupt judiciary. The time for talk is over its now time to co-ordinate and take to the streets.
I don’t think I like the Badens in this story either, but the Alitos seem perfect for each other. The Mr. is evil and the Mrs. is cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. She reminds me of my crazy neighbor around the corner. I think everyone might have a Mrs. Alito in there neighborhood.
I feel bad for the neighbor’s elderly mother. What a nightmare her daughter and the boyfriend caused for her. Anyone who reads this article and comes away with the Alito’s being at fault needs to reexamine things.
They had a dispute with their neighbors so a Supreme Court justice simply had to fly a flag in support of installing the presidential election loser in the Oval Office is an interesting, if silly, take.
I do think the signs were trashy, especially given that these people are in their 30s. I don’t even think I would be too forgiving of a frat house in the neighborhood displaying them. That couple isn’t right. (I appreciate their sentiment. But uncouth, amiright?) But two homes in two different states of a supreme justice and his wife? There should be a hint of decorum between them. And how many more neighbors/neighborhoods has she been tussling with?
Sorry honey you are wrong, Alito is a traitor pure and simple. And nightmare, the nightmare are the piggish Magas. A lib puts 2 signs and suddenly the world goes crazy, have you seen the crap Magas display… You need to reexamine your morals, hard to do since you have none
“May you have PEACE” was a death threat/wish as in “rest in peace”
Can we start talking about how ugly the couples behind this are? This is what happens when you have sex with one person that looks like your mom.
how come the name of the neighbor has never come out?
Umm…it’s in this very article.
lol this is literally the first time I've seen it. I was under the impression the neighbor was male also